As any hardcore fan of the Trek series will tell you, the smallest adjustments made to the originals are bound to undergo a tremendous amount of scrutiny. That having been said, the first reviews of the new HD DVD release of Star Trek have become available—and by the looks of things there is a lot to like, and a few things that will surely piss off more than a few fanboys—namely redesigned visual effects involving the show intro and the Enterprise.

According to both IGN and HD Disk news, the remastered video and audio is decent, but expect to see some artifacts and noise in certain areas. However, with dated material such as this that should be expected. The real interesting news is that the developers also attempted to blend in newly rendered CG shots of the shows visual effects—like external shots of the Enterprise for example. As you might imagine, these scenes tend to look out of place alongside the older footage.

On the plus side, there are plenty of extras to keep fans happy, like picture-in-picture video commentaries, a documentary outlining the new visual effects, an interactive 3D Enterprise tour that allows viewers to completely explore the inner and outer workings of the ship, as well "Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories" chronicling the experiences of a regular extra on the set.

All-in-all it appears that the Trek HD DVD is a worthwhile pickup if you already own a player. However, others may want to wait until a clear winner is chosen in the format wars—because there will surely be other Trek HD upgrades in the future. [IGN and HD Disk News]